Boot Camp for New Dads Reaches
Out to Dads Under Fire
Irvine, CA -- May 10, 2001 -- /Xpress Press/ -- Striving
to tailor a
program especially for fathers at high risk of abandoning their children,
Boot Camp For New Dads is implementing projects nationwide designed to
address the particular concerns of low income fathers and inner city dads.
Unfortunately, many previous programs meant to help fathers have had high
failure rates because they reach dads too late. Boot Camp For New Dads
believes the key to improving the quality of life for many young children
lies in mobilizing community and social service resources to prepare
fathers to be capable and caring before the birth of their children.
Boot Camp For New Dads is a unique program that brings "rookie"
fathers-to-be together with "veteran" recent dads and their
newborns. Boot
Camp For New Dads, a non-profit program, is offered at more than 100 in
hospitals, clinics, schools and churches across the U.S.
A NATIONAL PUSH
"The interest is definitely there, we just have to pull it all together,"
affirms Billy Kaplan, a Chicago therapist in charge of Boot Camp (For)
New
Dads in the Illinois area. "Tennessee has challenged us to match
or pass
their number of expansion programs," Billy proclaims. "We all
realize there
are only winners in this bet-but it's a marvelous contest! Our main goals
are to get more Boot Camp programs running and to gain more exposure.
We're
taking the message to the streets, the high schools, the jails--anywhere
that at-risk dads might be." Prototype outreach programs are currently
being implemented in Illinois, Colorado, California, Tennessee, and South
Carolina."
THE ILLINOIS EFFORT
In Illinois, Billy Kaplan is spearheading the locally initiated, "New
Dads
Project", a National Demonstration Project, with a task force including
the
Illinois Fatherhood Initiative, the Erickson Institute, Voices for Illinois
Children, Parents Who Care and Share, and the Department of Public Aid.
With New Dads Projects up and running at three Chicago-area venues, Billy
hopes that ten to twenty new projects will be available soon. Reactions
from hospitals have been enthusiastic with some already running programs
to
serve urban teen dads and other hospitals modifying their current Boot
Camp
program's content to address concerns of low-income dads or fathers of
color.
CONNECTING THE DOTS TO DRAW A DAD
Boot Camp's outreach programs are addressing the special needs of
low-income or inner-city fathers or fathers by opening the doors to connect
various community services. In Illinois, Parental Involvement Project,
helping dads to get more involved in their kids' lives and helping fathers
get jobs and keep them, will conduct a free 12 week course if an
organization lines up ten interested men. Another Illinois organization,
El
Valor, wants to run Boot Camp Programs in Spanish with special attention
to
concerns of Hispanic dads. From high school seminars on fatherhood, to
guiding fathers on the process of applying for a job and keeping their
jobs, to bilingual workshops, Boot Camp for New Dads' special outreach
programs draw on diverse community and social service resources to extend
their services.
EARLY HANDS-ON TRAINING KEEPS NEW DADS ENTHRALLED Like a "Head Start"
program for dads, Boot Camp For New Dads wants to start dads off interested
through education and participation, beginning in the delivery room. "If
Dad's hands are the first to touch his baby, if he helps clean up his
little tike right after birth, if his finger is the first that baby grasps,
then he's hooked," declares Billy Kaplan. He also recommends picking
up the
"Face of Fatherhood" calendar, available across the country,
that includes
a nationally oriented resource guide listing phone numbers, organizations
and websites devoted to fatherhood.
BOOT CAMP BEGINNINGS
Boot Camp (For) New Dads is a unique program that brings
"rookie"
fathers-to-be together with "veteran" recent dads and their
newborns.
Having a child is an awesome gift, and joy, and an immense challenge.
Boot
Camp (For) New Dads is helping dads prepare for their mission. A Boot
Camp
(For) New Dads session is a single three-hour program often on the first
Saturday morning of each month.
Greg Bishop, founder of Boot Camp for New Dads, has had lots of hands-on
experience caring for babies, with 12 siblings, 4 children of his own
and
numerous nieces and nephews. Bishop noticed that many men didn't seem
to
enjoy custody of their babies. After extensive research, he founded Boot
Camp For New Dads at Irvine Medical Center (CA) in 1990 and has volunteered
as Head Coach ever since.
National media, including news segments on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN as well
as articles in Life Magazine, Parents Magazine, Reader's Digest
and others, have helped fuel the expansion of Boot Camp For New Dads to
100 programs reaching thousands of new dads. The program is designed to
bring a dad's perspective to the 1.5 million men who become fathers each
year across America.
BADGE OF HONOR
"I can't imagine a more rewarding activity than helping new dads
step up to
the challenge," rejoiced Bishop, a Stanford MBA and active Boot Camp
coach.
"These guys are inspiring and should make all men proud, because
once they
understand how much they are needed, they deliver the goods."
ROLL CALL
For more information about Boot Camp (For) New Dads, please call (949)
786-3146 or visit http://www.newdads.com.
Editors:
To arrange an interview with Greg Bishop, founder of Boot Camp for New
Dads, or a coach at a Boot Camp program in your region, please contact
Steve Dubin, Drool Sergeant & PR counsel at (781) 878-9533,
sdubin@prworkzone.com.